Back ||NOAA Home VADM Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., USN (Ret.) Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Remarks at Winnacunnet High School May 26, 2004, 0830-0930 hrs, Hampton, N.H. Good Morning! It is a great honor for me to be here today with such a distinguished group of students. I want to recognize the students of the eight teams here today that took part in NOAA's ship-naming contest—the projects titled Aegir; Amphitirite; Gadus; Grampus II; Kasko; Odyssey; and Wate; and I want to congratulate the Bigelow team, who won the contest! I personally want to thank each of you for your effort. We've brought NOAA hats for each of the eight teams that participated in the contest that you will receive later. You all are very lucky to have a teacher like Ms. Silver who provided guidance in completing these excellent projects, and a principal like Ms. Leveille, whose support in making your school the winner of the ship-naming contest was invaluable. They deserve a round of applause. Your projects were outstanding and you demonstrated to all of NOAA, and others, the hard work and dedication you put into creating potential names for NOAA's next Fisheries Survey Vessel, the HENRY B. BIGELOW. You should all be very proud of your accomplishment. I also want to thank and recognize our great friend, Senator Gregg. Without him, there would be no HENRY B. BIGELOW. This new Fisheries Survey Vessel will help protect and restore our Nation's fisheries so that they are in great shape for your generation. The HENRY B. BIGELOW is now under construction after the keel laying ceremony that some of you attended last week and the ship will be plying the New England waters in 2006. Scientists aboard HENRY B. BIGELOW will collect information on ground fish and sea scallops, identify environmental factors that affect fish stocks, study organisms that supply the food chain, and investigate plankton populations and oceanographic conditions---all missions critical for taking care of our fisheries. I hope that you all will follow the voyages of this ship over the coming years and will remain proud of the role you played in naming her. Just as the oceanographer Henry Bigelow sailed tens of thousands of miles on a borrowed NOAA schooner to study sea life, if we're lucky, perhaps some of you will eventually sail on her as graduate students or accomplished scientists conducting valuable research. At this time, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the Honorable Senator Judd Gregg.